2016 Frozen Water Mage Summit

New Year's Initiations

Happy 2016, Practitioners of the Arcane!

We hope you’ve had a happy and healthy New Year. Himalaya has some exciting plans on the horizon for 2016, for sure. There’s been some major issues that we’ve had to deal with personally (primarily homebuying mishaps that fortunately, finally came to an end), so we’re aiming to get the game headed towards beta testing faster, with those things now behind us. This is a shorter update on the state of progress, but an important one, nonetheless.

Light At the End of the Programming Tunnel

So, what have we been doing since last you heard from the development team, we hear you ask? Well, we're glad for your question, dear Initiates! For the most part, our time has been spent bug-fixing combat issues, as per usual, and playing the now all-too-familiar combat "whack-a-mole", addressing two new issues for every one issue that gets resolved. We know these updates are probably a little on the dull, repetitive side and they probably make it sound like not much has been taking place behind the scenes, but we have come a very long way on this front since August last year with literally thousands of battle bugs being squashed. And now we're thrilled to announce that we have finally resolved every combat bug (that we're aware of) for every spell, monster, and boss in the game -- bar one! Yes, a sole combatable critter remains to be tangled with and we plan on duking it out with him and taking him DOWN over the course of the next few weeks. After that, it's simply a matter of refining gameplay elements, fixing some non-combat bugs, juggling the score/XP and RPG system a bit, and then we'll have our first alpha-release candidate that can be considered for in-team testing and, subsequently, private backer testing!

In the meantime, please enjoy this video sneak peak of the Air Mage in action. On show are some of his spells and a few of the monster types in the dreary Bloodbark Forest of Iginor.

Latest AGS Game Assets & Stats

For those keeping score, here are the latest AGS engine stats for Mage's Initiation:
Total sprites: 19049 / 30000

Sprite folders: 865

Total views: 785

Total GUIs: 74

Inventory Items: 300 / 300 (Since the game uses a dynamic inventory system, we have over 300 inventory items)

Characters: 214

Dialog topics: 394 / 500

Alpha For Your Thoughts (We Need Your Feedback!)

You’ve all been lovely and exceedingly patient in terms of waiting for the beta release of Mage's Initiation. While we’ve made a lot of refinements to our original, in-house alpha build on account, fleshing out more code and bug-squashing, we’re still a ways off from showing you guys a playable beta version. Yet we know backers are eager to see the game and get a feel for how it has been progressing.

So, we have a question. We're wondering if eligible backers would rather test a rough (but complete) alpha version sooner, in a couple of months time? Or would you prefer to hold out several months longer for a more stable beta build? In either case, the playable build won't have recorded voices yet, as we don't want to record them until the game has been thoroughly tested and any necessary textual changes to the dialogue have been made. It's always a pain to get actors back for pick-up sessions, so we're hoping to work around that by testing the text-only game first and foremost.

Additionally, would backers prefer to receive their test builds via Steam or Humble Bundle? We're still trying to figure out the logistics of getting the test build into eligible backer's hands in the easiest, most seamless manner possible.

Aubrey Hodges recently released a fully revamped version of the official Quest For Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness soundtrack. It includes over 60 remastered tracks using real instruments. Well worth supporting, just remember to listen while enjoying a garlic and avocado sandwich.

Don Bluth fans can rejoice as he’s gotten his team back together to make a Dragon’s Lair movie, bringing the arcade classic to life in a new medium. Show some love on Indiegogo!

Well, that's all for this update. There hasn't been much variation in our work for several months, which means there hasn't been much other than combat and bug fixes to talk about! We're very much looking forward to the next phase of development, which should give us a wider range of things to discuss.

Comments

@ShadowNate We haven't been able to come to any mutual agreement with GOG yet, so at present there are no plans for the GOG platform.

Right now, the rough projected release is late 2016 (Q3 or Q4). It all depends on how long the alpha/beta testing stage takes, and how long it takes to record, split, and lip-sync all the character voices. We're definitely in the home stretch now, though.

I am ok with alpha/ private beta on Steam.
Maybe GOG offers something similar with their new "early-access" program, but I'd wager that Steam is a much more easier way to do it for you.

Also, I don't care about the final release being distributed via Steam. In fact it would be really convenient for me if it were on Steam.

Do you have any (current) rough estimation about the final release date? I mean, is it going to be late this year, next year? I may have missed the updates about the delay, because the last release estimate I have is the one mentioned in the campaign page, and that is more than one year ago past.

Yeah, the disc build definitely won't be a Steam version. We'll probably distribute the final game via Humble, which means backers would get both a DRM-Free stand-alone version, as well as a Steam key, which they can redeem it they wish.

Right now, though, we're focusing on distribution of the alpha build, and Steam does seem the best all-round way to handle that.

@Anaxphone What I mean is that the game itself is not wrapped in any DRM, so a person could install it on Steam, move it to another directory, and then uninstall Steam, and the game will still run, DRM-Free, without any reliance on Steam.

But yes, in that scenario, a person would need to install the Steam client to actually download the game.

Superbacker

I don't have feelings one way or the other regarding the alpha/beta, since I usually skip those when I have access, but the finished game, especially the physical version: No Steam or any other client.

Superbacker

Superbacker

Re Alpha/Beta: Usually I ignore such in story-heavy games beyond basic system tests due to wanting the full experience, surprises and all, in the release version, but this is one of the games I'm looking forward to the most, and as much as I am for developers taking all the time they need, I can hardly wait anymore. � And after pondering it for a bit, I think that the farther - both temporally and in terms of polish - the playtest is from the 1.0 version (with which I plan to have two parallel playthroughs at release anyway), the less "replay ennui" will set in. Plus, the earlier the bug (et al.) reports, the better, no?

Re Humble/Steam: Unlike with the release version, I really don't care either way. Whatever's easier for you, which I agree ought to be Steam.

(On a side note, for some reason (poll participation?) I had a bunch of unused, useless points in my Torment backer account, so not wanting to let those go to waste, I pledged another USD 1.84 and will start beta-testing ToN this week. Huzzah! � (Although I won't venture deep into it for aforementioned spoiler reasons. And assuming it's even playable from the get-go - unlike all previous Unity betas.) ... 'Though come to think of it, whatever happened to the Exiles in Torment? Did they stay unofficial? I can't find any such add-on on the backer site. Oh well, just as well. *shrug*)

Thanks for the feedback, everyone! So, based on the feedback, I'm leaning towards a Steam release for the early alpha builds. As noted, it allows us to keep everyone updated to the latest version of the game and also makes distribution much easier.

When the proper beta version is ready, we can look into releasing via Humble if that seems the better option at the time.

Love the news, that video makes me incredibly excited for what you've done!!! I'm all for an earlier alpha release, so we can help you track down those pesky bugs. Those not interested could always wait for it to stabilize

I'm not eligible, either, but generally speaking, the earlier you get the alpha out to the backers (read: testers), the less expensive the bug-fixing will be. Just be prepared for a storm of new bug reports, and having to explain over and over again that an alpha is not the final product. :-)

Also, there is no point in asking whether you should release the alpha to backers or not: opinions will always be divided. Instead, pick a tier (preferably a higher one, so you don't have too many testers at once) and give everyone on it and up access to the alpha. Let them decide whether to play it or not. :-)

Wow! The combat looks great. The music and sound effects are VERY effective. (When I played the short demo awhile back that was my first reaction then, as well.) And I like how the goblins hurt each other.

Also, I would vote for Steam. Though now I'm thinking I might hold off playing anything until final release, since I don't want to spoil the experience of playing the finished product.

Great update, guys! The game is coming along very nicely. It's common knowledge that Himalaya Studios/AGDI is, was and always shall be THE BEST.

I may be an outlier, but I'm only going to play when I've got the physical product in hand. I want the fully immersive experience of reading the manual and looking at the art on my first time through. This has prevented me from playing other games I've pledged for that delivered digitally ages ago, but haven't sent their physical packages yet.

Not that I'm eligble for beta/alpha test, but my 0.02 cents on the matter is, that for an alpha/beta purpose Steam makes more sense, as it makes it easier to make sure that all the testers are using the same version. With Humble people just need to make sure of that themselves and the devs can't never really be certain that the bugs reported are for the current version.

Superbacker

I like Steam, it allows me to keep track of what I have easily and keep things updated. It is especially useful for me as I have about 4 machines I use regularly, and games that save in the cloud make it really convenient to pick up where I left off...

@Nidoking Yeah, they provide Steam keys, but we'd have to code the game especially to work with Steam's SDK, which might be a bit more tricky. Would be goof to get advice from other Kickstarter projects with large numbers of backers to see how they handled this.

I'd enjoy an alpha, and doesn't Humble provide Steam keys for games that are available on Steam? Seems like it could be the best of both worlds if you provide that.
Is there a link for the QFG4 soundtrack? I didn't see it in the update.